Michael Powell to resign?

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:58:00 -0700, "Sid Schweiger" <sid@wrko.com> said:

> That wasn't PRIOR restraint.  The "seven words you can't say on
> television" routine was broadcast by WBAI in New York.  The resulting
> complaints and FCC ruling were after the fact.

And Supreme Court case, don't forget that.  Every law student must
spend some time studying FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726
(1978), during their constitutional law course(s).  This is usually
the point where one will go into the difference between "indecent" and
"obscene", and why different legal standards apply to each (see Miller
v. California), and how the Court found that Carlin's routine
(entitled "Dirty Words", FWIW) was "indecent" and not "obscene".

The practical upshot of this is that you can say the "seven words you
can't say on television", so long as they're on cable, or satellite,
or broadcast between 2200 and 0600 local time.

-GAWollman